CDS-OTA Exam Pattern, Syllabus and Best Books

The Combined Defense Services Examination is conducted biannually by the Union Public Service Commission to recruit candidates in the Indian Military Academy, Officers Training Academy, Indian Naval Academy and Indian Air Force Academy. In the following article is dedicated to CDS OTA paper with its pattern, syllabus and other details.

Officer Training Academy (CDS OTA) is cpnducted in offline mode (pen-paper based) test consisting of objective type questions to test a candidate’s English and General Awareness. The only major difference between CDS-OTA paper and CDS Exam for NDA, IMA and IAF is that the former does not have a Mathematics section while all the latter do.

CDS OTA is a fairly an easy test majorly due to the absence of a mathematics section. In order to score good, one needs to be updated with the current affairs as well as get an average strength at English to reach the next step of the selection process. Read on to know more!

Highlights of OTA Paper

Mode of Examination

Offline (paper-pen based)

Total No. of Questions asked

240

Type of Questions

Objective i.e. Multiple Choice

Maximum Marks

200

Duration of Examination

240 minutes

Section

2 (English and General Knowledge)

Negative Marking

1/3rd per incorrect answer

CDS OTA Paper 1 Structure

Paper 1 consists of English which is considerably easy and can help one to increase one’s score drastically.

Section Name

English

No. of Questions

120

Total Marks

100

Time allotted

120 minutes

Medium

English

Level of Section

Easy to Moderate

CDS OTA English Syllabus

English Section in OTA 2018 is a mixture of Vocabulary based, Grammar-based and Comprehension based questions.

This paper is designed to test a candidate’s verbal reasoning as well as communication abilities.

As for the Reading Comprehension part, questions are usually direct and to the point and the difficulty level is easy to moderate.

There are 120 questions asked from this section.

While the topics covered in this section are not that difficult but do require immense practice and good command over English language.

Syllabus for English

Antonyms and Synonyms

Sentence Completion

Sentence Re-arrangement (Para-Jumbles)

Spelling Based Questions

Fill in the blanks (Grammar-based and Vocabulary based)

Idioms and Phrases

Reading Comprehension

Parts of Speech

Punctuation

Critical Reasoning

Error Spotting

Odd Word Out

Weightage of topics in Paper 1

Paper 1- English consists of a number of topics; each has the weightage mentioned below-

Topic

Percentage Weightage

Comprehension

15%

Sentence correction

15%

Error Spotting

15%

Synonyms

12%

Antonyms

12%

Ordering of words

10%

Ordering of sentence

8%

Analogy

10%

Fill in the blanks

3%

CDS OTA Best Books: English

Book Name

Author/ Publisher

High School English Grammar and Composition Key

Wren and Martin

Word Power Made Easy

Norman Lewis

A Modern Approach to Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning

R.S. Aggarwal

Other than the above-mentioned books, candidates must make sure to include the following in their everyday routine:

Read Newspapers: The Hindu/The Times of India/ Economics Times

Practice Previous Year Papers

Take Mock Practice Papers

CDS OTA Paper 2 Structure

Paper 2 is made of General Knowledge questions which is an important part of the exam and fairly difficult.

Section

General Knowledge

No. of Questions

120

Total Marks

100

Time allotted

120 minutes

Medium

English or Hindi

Level of Section

Difficult

CDS OTA Syllabus: General Knowledge

The section that tests a candidates level of awareness within the country and worldwide as well.

There will be static GK questions as well. Static GK signifies facts about the places, people and things that will remain same in the future as well.

Questions are asked from the recent topics and current affairs broadly featuring between March 2019 and April 2019.

Tabulated below are some important topics that form CDS syllabus for GK section:

Politics

Ancient, Medieval, Modern and World History

Geography

Economics (Outline of Indian Economy, Five Year Plans, National Income of India, Indian Tax Structure)

Science and technology

Environment & Ecology

General Science

National & International Burning topics

Books and Authors

Environment

Industries

Major Industries in India

Agriculture

Awards and Achievements

Weightage of Topics in Paper 2

Paper 2- General Ability has the following weightage distribution for various topics

Topic

Percentage Weightage

Science

23%

Geography

16%

Polity

15%

History

15%

Economics

12%

Current Affairs

13%

CDS OTA Best Books – GK Section

CDS Book Name

Author/ Publisher

Manorama Yearbook 2018

Mammen Mathew

Current Affairs Yearly 2018

Arihant Experts

General Knowledge 2018: Latest Current Affairs & Who's Who

RPH Editorial Board

Other Recommended Books for CDS

The following books listed below are a compilation of both the sections in OTA Paper of CDS.

Book Name

Author/ Publisher

Combined CDS (OTA) Book

DDE – Defence Direct Education

Pathfinder CDS

Arihant Experts

Lets Crack CDS Exam

SSBCrack

CDS-OTA Marking Scheme

The entire paper is allotted marks in the following way-

Total marks

200

Marks per Section

100

Marks per question

0.83

Marks allotted per correct answer

0.83

Marks deducted per incorrect answer

0.27

Marks deducted per unanswered question

0

About OTA

Officer Training Academy is one of the most renowned training establishments of the Indian Army. It totally focuses on training officers for short service commission. Individuals who aspire to serve and protect their country are always welcomed at the two campuses of the Academy, one at Chennai and the other at Gaya. The expected vacancies offered by the academy will be around 200. Know more